Do me a favor and skip the annual "I will work out more this year" resolution that's practically designed to make you feel like a failure, and make a resolution that you can really get into this year. Of course I'm speaking of wine resolutions, the kind that are easy to make and hard to break. Here are mine:

1. Travel the world through wine. I actually get to travel quite a bit, considering that I have two young kids at home. Last year I went to California twice, to Washington, to Texas, to South Dakota, and to New York. Everywhere I go, I try to taste and experience as many new wines as possible. But you can taste the whole world through wine right at home by branching out beyond the same old bottle of California Chardonnay that you pop open twice a week for dinner. Try a Tempranillo from Spain, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, a Riesling from Germany, a Vouvray from France, a Malbec or Torrontes from Argentina, a Barbara from Italy. I want to taste more around the world, and learn about the cuisines to match.

2. Get certified. I've been writing about wine for several years now, and it's time to take some classes beyond my own self-study. Many wine writers don't, and it's certainly not a requirement, but one of the reasons I love the world of wine is its infinite possibility for education (as well as entertainment!). I'm looking into certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2009.

Read more after the jump.


3. Take better notes. I've finally begun to get organized with my tastings and notes. I used to write notes on a scrap of paper in the kitchen, which would then migrate to my office and get stuck in a folder somewhere. Now I'm trying to catalog all of my notes and bottles into one Excel file. It's a little fussy, but worth it when I'm writing a story and wondering, "Did I recommend that wine already? When? Where?"

4. Patronize more restaurants that care about wine. No matter how much my 5-year-old loves Applebee's, there's just not a lot of choice when I want a nice glass of wine. On the other extreme, I want to avoid restaurants with exorbitant wine markups ($10 for a single glass of wine that retails for $8 a bottle at the store) and instead, frequent places that allow BYOB or that have a well-thought-out, eclectic wine list that won't break the bank.

5. More tastings. I've had a few tastings at my house where I make snacks and open lots of wine, but I don't do them enough because it's a lot of work. Next year I want to do more tastings, but ask people to bring snacks so I can do it more often and have twice as much fun.

How about you? Got any wine (or food) resolutions for 2009?